The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-26


ply material existence or bodily shape;
they apply to pure spirit as distinctly
and properly as to embodied spirits. In
all Christian philosophy God is conceiv-
ed, as he is represented in the one hun
dred and thirty-ninth Psalm, everywhere
present throughout the whole of infinite
space-without body, parts or passions.
Those phrases in the Bible which speak
of him as bowing down his ear, stretch
ing forth his hand, and the like, are seen,
on the slightest examination, to be mere
figures Of rhetoric; never intended by the
sacred writers to be understood in any
literal sense.
By affirming the First Cause of the
universe, the Absolute Being upon whom
all being depends, is person, theology
means TO affirm that this n Z sent
Tausr "a - = ... ~-s
knowing all his works, and knowing him
self as well as his creatures. This is the
precise meaning of the word person in
philosophy; it means the highest form of
consciousness. The lowest forms of life
take the spopges for example, appear to
be sensitive; they shrink from touch, but
their sensations seem so feeble that we
can hardly suppose them conscious, more
so than the sensitive plants. But as we
go upward in the scale of animal life, we
presently find animals which give evil
dence not only of sensation but of
thought. They not only feel but evident
ly have knowledge; they think. Yet they
give no evidence of thinking about
thought. In one sense they think about
themselves; they think of their own wants,
desires, appetites; they lay their plans to
obtain what they want; they are distinct
them to be truly self conscious, therefore
we do not call them persons.
In other words the animals, although
conscious, are not conscious of their own
consciousness; they give no evidence OF
speculating on their own nature, of pry-
ing into their own origin and own des-
tiny. They have not knowledge in that
higher sense, the knowledge of them
selves. They have no feeling in the high
er sense Of feeling a divine thirst for the
knowledge OF truth for truths sake; OF
feeling the glow of love toward all being
III proportion to its worth; Of feeling q
sense of absolute universal obligation
They have no will, in the higher sense OF
concentrating all their powers, to the gov
ernment Of every thought and wish and
act, in obedience to a universal moral
law. All 6his higher life Is in some de,
gree manifested in man, even in the hum,
blest men, ana it is these higher powers
of self-knowledge and self-control which
constitute person.
All Christian philosophers have affirm
ed, with perfect unanimity, and with
great emphasis, that God is a Person,
What they have meant by this phrase has
no reference to his mode of existence,
but only to certain of His revealed at
tributes. as for His mode of existence,
and for the fulness OF His attributes,
every Christian theolgian admits, with
the East Indian pantheist and the Eng
lieh agnostic, that those are matters
which finite mind can by no searching
find out. But the Christian theoloeians
by saying emphatically that God is a
Person, mean to say that He has know
ledge, perfect knowledge of all things
including a knowledge of himself. And
since we men know ourselves very i'm
perfectly, God is not only person, but
is the only Perfect person, the only be
ing of perfect personality. They mean
further, that He is filed with an infinite
love of all that is good, and in Him al
good exists; and that He alone, with in
flexible will, carries forward eternal pur
poses Of all-embrReing good. The being
OF all beings, in whom all things exist
and on whom all beings depend, is al
ways and everywhere acting; sustaining
all things by His power, guiding all things
by his unerring wisdom, under the cease
less impulse of His unlimited love; 8nd
is ever filed with an ineffable blessed
ness, in the consciousness of Himself and
of His own work. This is what we NEAR
by Personal God; this is the first great
article of Christian and Jewish faith; the
possession OF this faith is the first great
boon by which all the families OF the
earth are blessed through the seed Of
Abraham. Obedient love toward this
God is the end Of the first and great com
mandment: and the high est end of knowl
edge and philosophy is to confirm, Will
an ever-varying, ever-in cressing serie:
of considerations, this faith Thoma,
| Hill, d. d.
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